Receivers of video and other information tune to or accept one signal at a time. In some cases, a receiver, usually with recording capability, might have several tuners or the ability to receive and decode several signals at the same time, one signal optionally for viewing, another signal possibly for a “Picture-In-Picture”, PIP, feature, with some or all of such signals for optionally recording. But even in these cases the number of simultaneous programs and the number of signals simultaneously available on cable, satellite, broadcast, and other media is huge in comparison. Conventionally, users do not attempt to acquire QR code information using a conventional optical path such as a smartphone camera when such programming is presented to them such as on a monitor. Among other factors making such optical path QR code acquisition impracticable, by the time the user is aware of the QR code and is able to actuate her smartphone for acquisition, the QR code is gone from the screen. Additionally, even if it were practicable for a user to do such conventional optical path QR acquisition, the user is typically supplied with only one or at most several screen presentations for only one channel or a handful of programming channels at a time, thus making it likely that the user may miss some relevant QR codes in other programming channels. This is a major deficiency in the prior art. Not until there is a more organized and comprehensive way to acquire, store and process information from QR codes that are contained in programming channels does it become possible realistically to address how such information may be captured, processed and shared among various users according to, for example, their interests.
A further problem with the prior art is that Multi Channel Video Providers, MCVPs, are limited in their ability to attract significant numbers of viewers to advertisements because there are so many programs being offered at the same time and because there is so much competition for viewers. This limits the revenue they can generate from their advertisements. The term MCVP is intended to include any service or method that provides multiple programs by any technology.